I wrote to Jim Davis a year ago about these. This is his reply:
It was Halloween, and I wanted to play with everyone's biggest fear,
being alone...I felt that, that was scarier than ghosts and rattling
chains.
Also, if you go back and look at other years, he sometimes does themed weeks for Halloween and other holidays.

I remember these from a collection I read while growing up, I never understood and truly didn't read the last two because they were just not funny nor interesting. However Jim Davis said he found the idea of Garfield imagining future strips while starving to death laughable: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/09/death-of-garfield-my.html

Well of COURSE they are real. Paws Inc hires about a bijillion unknown graduates of that art school where you draw the pirate and the turtle, chains them in a basement, and forces them to draw idiotic jokes about Mondays and Lasagna so that Jim Davis can LIVE IMMORTALLY.

Oh, different artist, that explains it. I was wondering why entire rooms were being drawn, why Garfield was shown from various angles, and generally why this wasn't the usual copy/paste-change-world-bubbles that Jim Davis normally uses. Lazy bastard.

GARFIELD IS DEAD........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................LANDO IS NOT

I'm writing to the past. Dear 2005, Gas prices will climb to four dollars a gallon. Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith will die from a drug overdose. Transformers will suck. Remember Democratic vice presidential hopeful John McCain? He's a running as a Republican now. Britney Spears and Tom Cruise will go batsh*t. YTMND will be purchased by Viacom and become YTMNV. Stamps will last forever. Jesus comes back... also c*cks

While Garfield has polevaulted over the shark, any theories that he's "really" dead are just that, theories. And yes thats a real line of strips. It apparently scared so many of his readers that Davis never did anything so creative again. A shame.

"though he seemed alive in those god awful films."
Where is the real ghost of Garfield to destroy every copy of those horrible movies. If any Hollywood execs are reading this DO NOT TURN OLD CARTOONS INTO LIVE ACTION!

I can confirm they are real, I remember reading them in the paper :D But wow, Wikipedia is WRONG. I followed Garfield untill the mid 1990's when it started to suck, and let me enlighten all: In the beginning, Jim Davis tried to run his comic like For Better or For worse, and have various plots to follow, subtle meanings, ect... Remember Nermal? Layman? Ed? Garfield's mom? Anyway, early in the series, Garfield runs away from home, and really does come close to starving to death, but he just happens

to meet his mother and father, who take care of him, and Garfield Mentions how his week of starvation has changed him forever... And he eventually gets home, and every once in a while after that untill Jim Davis turned into a pathetic sell out, if you watch closely you can see he tries to allude back to Garfield and his trauma, and that's what this is, except the most blatant... Davis was trying to get people to realize how important the things we take for granted- food, water, loving family, really are.

Hey now, I'm a silly goose, and I say those are intriguing strips. But the most recent story line with the Liz Jon relationship pretty effectively counters any near death delusion explanation. The same may hold true for Lost.

It's pretty obvious that he was imagining the whole thing. Jim Davis actually did a lot of these within the series, where Garfield let his imagination go a little too far. So no, he is a alive, healthy, and still funny.

I remember this strip, saw it in one of the compilations. I don't believe that Garfield is dead. I do believe however that this strip was trying to do something with the Garfield series it hadn't done before and that was to humanize Garfield. It showed a deeper side to the orange cat and not only did it point out his greatest fear, but it did point out one of the largest problems apparent in the cat population, being abandoned.
It was a great strip and I wish Jim Davis didn't let his strip get so mediocu

Those remind me of the book "The 9 Lives of Garfield", where Garfield lives out and dies 9 times in alternate realities. The message in those strips is similar to one of the lives where he dies in space.

OMG you made me remember seeing that cartoon on tv as a kid where Garfield lives different lives or something... It was like a Christmas special or a short animated feature. Or a movie? Uh, anyway... Depressing as F*CK! Now I remember why I never liked Garfield.
='(

Correction on my part: "Garfield: His 9 Lives" Most of the themes revolve around the life lived, and few focus on death, yet it is most obvious that these are all different lives, complete with birth and death, featured or no.

f*ck you for saying "nobody likes Garfield" (yes, the movies were godawful, I didn't waste my money, but the comic strips could be rpetty neat. And the children's novels about them being a superhero team). Interesting though, and nice presentation, even if it is a little too fast. Unvoted for the sh*tty smack at Garfield at the beginning, though. Or else this would get a 4 or a 5 I guess.

Sounds like either Donnie Darko ripped off Garfield, or it's a hoax based off of Donnie Darko. Seeing as Wiki can easily be edited, I wouldn't be suprised if it's the latter because Donnie Darko is good...but Garfield is awful painfully unfunny.

I have the local papers kept from that series. However, just because Jim Davis wanted to explore a new story and theme...Garfield did not die. I love the style he used. Much better inking than what you see now. Garfield in the 80's was extremely popular...it just has had it's time pass like nearly all entertainment does.

I remember the cartoon having a lot of pretty strange stuff too. Even though I've never really liked Garfield, it's nice to see that this had an important message to say in it. Also nothing justifies starving cats to death, not even Doom music!

They're real, I remember reading them out of a Garfield book and not getting them at all. I've never thought of them meaning that Garfield is dead. Now that I think about it, I probably have the book with those strips, I'll go check.

TOO BAD THIS THEORY IS FALSE. The comic strip even says that noone has lived in the house for years and Garfield confirms that must also means he hasn't lived there either. So if he was completely non-existant during this time, then how could he have starved to death. It's a dream fools. But this would be nice if it was true.

I use to have a bunch of garfield books. now they really suck peanuts > garfield by far
and i have this strip in the collection i have. btw i have alot of friends who love garfied and we are going to gank up on you noob

I use to have a bunch of garfield books. now they really suck peanuts >
garfield by far and i have this strip in the collection i have. btw i
have alot of friends who love garfied and we are going to gank up on you
noob

Amazing find. I can't believe these strips slipped by me as a Garfield crazed kid. On the contrary I'd have to say that these comics represent a "birth" of Garfield in the sense that they're so unique and interesting - even poignant. Y'know, aside from that whole "starving to death" theory. (which is misconstrued IMO) Jim Davis was onto something, he should attempt angles like this again.

Holy sh*t, I COMPLETELY expected NEDM to appear at the end... and then it didn't. I guess that's a good thing. :-P Interesting though... that's not anything like the garfield comics I've seen throughout the year.s

I think that bit at the end, about how your imagination can be a dream or a nightmare, thats what Davis leaves you with. Depending on who you are, you either see his lonliness as a nightmare, or his waking up from it a dream. Either the good is a delusion or the bad is. Thats why these are so cool. I'm morbid, so he's totally dead.

Here's what I think
Garfield has been being lazy and sitting around most of his life just grubbing around there and eating. He realizes that eating is not as important as spending time with the people he loves. Therefore implying to us that we should spend more time with our own family because time is ticking away and they will be gone soon or later.

Imagine that. An artist creates a world renowned, celebrity like fictional character to teach others life lessons about family love and the power of the human mind. This world must be f*cked up. *Fart*

When I was younger, I used to read the Garfield archives in those fat paperback copies - I read a bit over 10 years, until Davis got less involved and it sucked, I remember that strip - to me, as a kid, it was somewhat humorous, kind of parodying the Twilight Zone - has nothing to do with death, it's just placing Garfield in his house years after they're all gone, in order to show him what life would be like alone - or to show what will eventually become of his family, so he doesn't take it for granted.